The rain stayed away and we even had a few brighter intervals for our Paxton Pits Volunteers visit to Welney WWT yesterday. Amazing numbers of Lapwing, several flocks of Black-tailed Godwits and all the usual ducks including good numbers of Pintail. Swans were limited to a few resident Whoopers and maybe a few distant Bewicks. The first image is going to rate as one of my all-time favourites - a Cattle Egret flying past one of the sheep walking along the bank.
I made a third visit to Frampton on the last day of our Lincolnshire holiday and concentrated in the morning on the birdlife, especially the Sedge Warblers and Reed Bunting in the reeds, the Spoonbills feeding, Sand Martins at their artificial bank, a visiting Red-crested Pochard, Lapwings and Little Ringed Plover.
Yesterday the RPS Nature Group managed a shortish morning's bird photography before the rain set in which was fine as most people were journeying considerable distances back home. There were very large flocks of Lapwing and Golden Plover settling on the scrapes in beautiful light showing off their colourful but very good camouflage plumage in with Teal, Dunlin, Wigeon etc. Down on the beach there weren't the expected numbers of waders, certainly compared with the huge flocks at Hunstanton, but most of the species were there in small numbers. Here a couple of Bar-Tailed Godwits and an Oystercatcher with mussel. A lone Black-winged Stilt with a ring (?escapee) posed beautifully.
